Abstracts

Megan Beckerich
University of Chicago, Art History

“Supernatural bodies and censorship in 19^th century prints”

This thesis seeks to ascertain the difference in reception of supernatural and natural bodies in early modern Japanese art. A study of prints will be done through the lens as a potential predecessor to erotic grotesque nonsense (ero-guro), a genre of media coined in the early twentieth century, in nineteenth-century woodblock prints, and the place such a genre would have held in nineteenth-century public imagination. By contrasting the work of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), specifically focusing on his The Lonely House on Adachi Moor 「奥州安達がはらひとつ家の図」(1885), with key ghost prints from contemporaneous artists to identify iconographic similarities associated with the later ero-guro movement, this thesis hypothesizes that censorial and popular receptions to these prints grew out of a difference between perceptions of human and supernatural female bodies. The central iconographic focus is the idea of female bodies in a reciprocal relation with the cultural connotation of ghosts as non-human. By comparing the visuals, purpose, and reception of The Lonely House to selected popular ghost prints and Yositoshi’s own catalogue, this thesis aims to more clearly illustrate the web of cultural meanings, connotations, and traditions from which the ero-guro genre emerged, while better understanding why certain visually grotesque prints were more acceptable than others in early modern society. An analysis of what constitutes supernatural and human bodies will be conducted to better understand what forms a body in art, and where the boundary between human and inhuman lies in this genre. Despite the folkloric origins of the Lonely House and many yurei (female ghost) prints, distinctions in reception may have resulted from the commercial purpose of prints, the perception of ghosts in religious context, or the politicization of art and folklore in the context of the rapid modernization that followed the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate.

---

Frederick Bowman
The Ohio State University, Linguistics

“Japanese dake and bakari as cases of degrammaticalization: a preliminary study”

‘Degrammaticalization,’ the phenomenon of bound grammatical morphemes (e.g. suffixes) becoming 1) freer grammatical morphemes (e.g. clitics) or 2) full lexical words, is generally accepted to be a real, if comparatively rare, occurrence with wide cross-linguistic attestation (Haspelmath 2004, Norde 2009; critical views offered by Askedal 2008, Kiparsky 2012, Lehmann 2015).

Japanese has long figured prominently in discussions of degrammaticalization (Matsumoto 1988, Haspelmath 2004, Norde 2009, Narrog 2016).  This paper builds on this foundation by considering the establishment of focus particles bakari ‘only; just’ and dake ‘id.’ as two further potential cases of degrammaticalization in Japanese.

Dake and bakari are of nominal origin, and are transparent rendaku variants of the free nouns take ‘height; length’ (root taka-) and hakari ‘measure; extent’ (deverbal from hakaru ‘to measure, contrive’).  This suggests an origin in nominal compounds, which can actually be demonstrated for dake: cf. Middle Japanese yundake < yumidake ‘the length of a bow’ vs. sanzunbakari naru hito ‘a person about three sun tall’ (< ‘a person whose measure/extent is three sun’).  Later, –dake and –bakari undergo semantic bleaching in these environments (‘extent / measure’ < ‘about / just) and become analyzed as restrictive particles, a case of canonical grammaticalization.

However, although this development involves the semantic bleaching characteristic of grammaticalization, it also seems to constitute ‘debonding’ (Norde 2009), a variety of de-grammaticalization in which bound material attains clitic, and ocasionally free-word, status, with no corresponding increase in semantic content.  Further, dake and bakari later appear to separately undergo further debonding, after which they also occur after case particles such as ni.

Should this analysis be sound, it would 1) further exhibit that degrammaticalization has been particularly frequent in Japanese and 2) provide two cases of grammaticalization followed by a later degrammaticalization.

---

John Bundschuh
The Ohio State University, Linguistics

“Reading Between the Lines: Narrative Modals –ki and –keri in Kundokugo Renditions of the Lotus Sutra and the Golden Light Sutra“

Kundokugo, the discourse genre that arose from transposing and reciting Chinese texts in Japanese, is as old as the act of reading itself in Japan. The religious and political classes who learned, copied, and propagated Buddhist sutras during the Heian period (794–1185 C.E.) used kundokugo to recite them in Japanese. Two sutras that held prominence throughout the rival sects were the Lotus Sutra (Hokkekyō) and the Golden Light Sutra (Konkōmyōkyō). These, like most Buddhist sutras, are structured as first-hand accounts of the Buddha addressing and conversing with a host of assembled deities. The narrator gives accounts of didactic conversations involving parables rich with embedded stories within their overarching narratives. In translating these texts into Japanese, the monks had to read between the lines, both figuratively and literally. Figuratively because Chinese lacks the morphological complexities of Japanese, and thus the translators had to add case markers to nouns and tense, aspect, and modality markers to predicates. Literally because in order to preserve their translations in writing they used diacritic markings between, and occasionally on, the original Chinese characters to denote the appropriate Japanese affix.

This study investigates how the narrative modals -ki and –keri were employed to create narrative frames and texture in the the above two sutras. I argue the predominance of -ki marking is due to the witnessed first person narrative stance in which the texts are positioned. H. Richard Okada (1991) demonstrates that in narratives –keri, “represents a legitimizing element of affirmation [. . .] through which the discourse grounds itself” (p. 42). I contend its relative paucity in the sutras is due to their presupposed legitimacy. Although there have been numerous studies on the use of these modal suffixes in the narrative structuring of vernacular Heian belles-lettres, this study expands these analyses to include kundokugo renditions of Buddhist texts.

---

Robert M. Dahlberg-Sears
The Ohio State University, Ethnomusicology

“Language Games and the Usage of Classical Japanese in Dir En Grey’s ‘UROBOROS’”

While recent studies of popular musics in Japan have focused heavily on hyper-popular idol culture, little scholarly work has focused on the relatively independent subculture scene known as visual-kei, a style whose sole unifying characteristic seems to be an embrace of a flamboyant, marked visual costume/aesthetic combinations. Among the many performing and touring groups, few have managed to gain as international a profile as Osaka group Dir En Grey, who have toured extensively outside of Japan while also releasing several full albums simultaneously worldwide, while performing almost exclusively in Japanese. Beyond the language barrier itself, the group’s lyricist actively disregards standard Japanese linguistic conventions in favor of creative, unorthodox grammar patterns and non-standard Chinese-character combinations. One particular instance of this undercutting of standard language is found on the 2008 album, “UROBOROS,” wherein several song titles are written utilizing classical Japanese grammar structures, but upon closer inspection, do not contain any further reference to classical Japanese within their lyrical texts.

This presentation seeks to examine these uncommon grammatical usages further, first by deconstructing possible interpretations of these classical Japanese-inflected titles, re-contextualizing them within the lyrical texts, and finally placing them within the greater context of the album’s poetic and visual aesthetic. Through this, new discussions on the role of classical Japanese to modern Japanese speakers, the poetic function of non-standard Japanese, and perceptions of socio-aesthetic value will be opened up and examined.

---

Nozomi Imai
Indiana University, Language Pedagogy

“Teaching mimetics in JFL classroom – an approach for early learning”

Although Japanese mimetics play a significant role in daily communication, more attention to sound symbolism is needed in Japanese pedagogy. Numerous researchers, however, have found that the proportion of mimetics introduced in elementary and intermediate level Japanese textbooks is small (Watanabe 1997). Some argue that the priority for beginner and intermediate learners should be basic vocabulary and grammar rather than mimetics, so that it is often up to the teacher whether, when, and how to introduce mimetics (Osuka 2009). Considering practical concerns in current JFL classrooms, such as curriculum restrictions and lack of teaching guidelines, this paper proposes an appropriate and effective way to teach mimetics based on pedagogical principles informed by linguistic and socio-cultural research. In designing effective materials, a two-part approach was developed: incorporation of linguistic functions of mimetics and the corresponding pedagogical strategies to teach them. Existing research reveals that numerous morphological and phonological features of mimetic words are associated with specific semantic domains and can be generalized. Additionally, this research paradigm (Baba 2003) demonstrates the role of mimetic words in various kinds of discourse. Mimetics are markers of informality in Japanese society and culture. The teaching materials focus on learning mimetic words through the performance of modified dialogues in existing textbooks. They also incorporate the 5Cs of the National Standards and promote more authentic language use. The approach also reflects the findings of a qualitative survey conducted among eleven JFL learners who all lived in Japan for more than six months offering a better understanding of learners’ perceptions of and experience with Japanese mimetics. Learner experiences are reported in the paper. Step-by-step guidelines for classroom implementation are proposed and illustrated with examples.

---

Shunichi Maruyama
The Ohio State University, Language Pedagogy

“Dialectal Code Switching in the Evaluative Clauses: Analyzing Japanese Comedians’ Narratives”

As skillful storytellers, modern Japanese comedians can manipulate their own dialects in order to color their oral narratives in various ways. This presentation is based on my interdisciplinary research delving into the intersection of Japanese pedagogy, linguistics, and Narrative Studies. By implementing William Labov’s narrative analysis of the oral narratives presented by those modern Japanese comedians, this presentation discusses the ways in which modern Japanese comedians, including native and non-native speakers of Japanese, utilize their own dialects in their oral narratives.

By reviewing the usages of various dialects in the narratives presented by modern Japanese comedians, it will become evident that dialectal code switching often occurs in the evaluative clauses in Labovian terms. The point of occurrence of dialectal code switching indicates the suspension of the sequenced events inserted by the narrators’ evaluation or the shift in focalization by creating an agent in the narratives. Those comedians originally from regions other than Tokyo possess a powerful tool to enrich their narratives by incorporating the notion of different levels of voices. Dialectal code switching in the evaluative clauses in the presented narratives can create different levels of voices in narration and characterizes the agents that result in enriching the narratives themselves as a whole.

Furthermore, Ike Nwala, the only non-native comedian in this study who was trained in Osaka and acquired Kansai dialect, was able to operate dialectal code switching as other Japanese-native comedians did in their narrated stories. This indicates that dialectal code switching is fully attainable and the notion of different dialects and its rhetorical and grammatical functionality should be introduced in the advanced-level Japanese language course, or, if possible, in a future cultural and linguistic course on Japanese narrative.

---

Kayo Puthawala
The Ohio State University, Language Pedagogy

“Recognition and Familiarity of Tokyo Dialects among People in Tokyo”